User Reviews

First of all, I remember that this Canadian stunt show did not get a wide syndication in the U.S. I was living in Alabama when it started but only got to see it at my grandparents' in North Carolina, where their local ABC affiliate carried it after the news.

Now, as for the show itself. Perhaps by 1971 standards there are few problems; the format of the show is that two teams (men vs. women) choose from a category board occupations related to the opposite gender. Each team performs the stunt connected with the occupation; the team with the least total time after four rounds wins.

So far, so good. But on the one show that's available online, two of the female contestants are housewives, while the third is a keypunch operator. The occupations are things like "chorus girl" and "hairdresser," and are placed on the women's side of the board; the men's side has things like "paperboy." Now in 1971 probably most women had not entered the job market, and today there's really no such thing as a "men's" or "women's" occupation. The concept of men vs. women could still work, but the occupations could not be gender-stereotyped as they were then.

"Anything You Can Do" was like a cross between "Beat The Clock" and a battle of the sexes. There were two teams, one consisting of men and the other consisting of women. Each team competed to complete wacky stunts. The finish time for each team was added to a running total, and the side with the lowest total time (minutes and seconds) was the winner (viewers with an excellent memory will recall the red & green decor of the show featured lots of Mars and Venus glyphs all over the set). The show didn't offer large prizes (as it aired during the early 70's) and was not a huge ratings grabber (as evidenced by the fact that it only ran one year in syndication).

But the show, if done right, is ripe for a revival.